Weekly Online Lending Snapshot – May 12, 2017

May 12, 2017 ·
David Beaver, Director of Content & Communications

It was reported this week that Zopa, the very first peer-to-peer lender, received full authorization from the the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the U.K. This will allow them to offer Innovative Finance Individual Savings Accounts (IFISAs), retirement accounts that allow individuals to invest in online loans, similar to Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) in the U.S. Zopa also reiterated that they are working towards applying for a banking license. An article in TechCrunch echoed earlier reports that SoFi is planning to apply for a bank charter in U.S. this year. Kreditech, a german-based consumer credit lender that focuses on serving underbanked markets, announced that it closed a EUR 110 million investment from PayU, a global payments firm that provides financial services in emerging markets. According to the announcement, it is the largest equity investment in a German fintech company. Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) assigned a senior unsecured debt rating of BBB- and short-term debt rating of K3 for CRB Group, Inc., stating among other things that, “The ratings are constrained by the Bank’s engagement in internet-based marketplace lending, a still-developing industry with recent headwinds, regulatory and legal uncertainty, and as-yet untested automated underwriting models.” The agency also announced that it has assigned preliminary rating of AA(sf) for the Class A tranche of SoFi’s SCLP 2017-3 securitization, a $530 million consumer loan ABS transaction that is closing on May 18, 2017.

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